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Northern Iowa

B

bigskyconf

Active member
So our opponent in the playoffs is the Northern Iowa Panthers from the Missouri Valley conference. As I pointed out on a different thread, their most famous football alum is probably Kurt Warner. They are located in Cedar Falls, just outside of Waterloo, and play their games in the UNI-Dome. In fact, four of their last five games have been in the UNI-Dome so they may be affected by weather. Game time is also at 9pm their time (CST).

Interesting fact, PSU is 1-2 this season against teams with "North" in their names, having beaten North Texas, and lost to North Dakota and Northern Colorado.
 
Their 4 losses coming from Iowa State, #2 North Dakota State, #4 Illinois State, and Western Illinois (who just defeated Daytona). They hung around the top 10 for the first few weeks. They're 3-3 away from the UNI Dome. Will be a good game to watch.
 
The Portland State Vikings will try to keep their magical season alive against Northern Iowa

http://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/index.ssf/2015/12/the_portland_state_vikings_wil.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When Portland State coach Bruce Barnum watches video of Northern Iowa, it's almost like looking in the mirror.

"They're similar to us," Barnum said. "Run it, run it. Make the defense stop it. Keep running it. Then, all of a sudden, pop a few over the top and score."

PSU (9-2) and Northern Iowa (8-4) tangle in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs at 7 p.m. Saturday in Providence Park.

The game will be live-streamed on ESPN3.

PSU had a bye in the first round. The visiting Panthers are coming off a 53-17, first-round pounding of Eastern Illinois.

Running back Tevin Smith rushed for 147 yards for Northern Iowa, which spotted Eastern Illinois an early 7-0 lead and then took over.

Quarterback Aaron Bailey, a transfer from Illinois, is the guy who makes the Panthers go. The 6-foot-2, 226-pound junior set a school record with 17 rushing touchdowns. He was named the Missouri Valley Conference newcomer of the year.

"I can't say enough about that kid," Barnum said. "He can play anywhere. He's the spark of their offense, but he's not their only player."

Barnum said the PSU defense will have trouble matching up with the Panthers' speed.

"To have a chance in the football game, we have to be solid at tackling one-on-one, and we have to get as many hats on the ball as we can," Barnum said.

The Panthers' defense can cause problems too.

Northern Iowa returned four interceptions for touchdowns this season, two by cornerback Deiondre' Hall. Hall is the Missouri Valley defensive player of the year.

The Vikings can counter with starring players of their own. Quarterback Alex Kuresa is the Big Sky Conference newcomer of the year. Safety Patrick Onwuasor is tied for the FCS lead with nine interceptions and is one of three finalists for FCS defensive player of the year.

It could be quite a battle.

"What stands out to me is their physicality and their speed," PSU running back David Jones said after surveying UNI's defense. "They fly to the football and gang tackle. That's a very special defense."

Speaking of special, PSU's season has been an unexpected pleasure. The Vikings were 3-9 last season and hadn't played in the postseason since 2000.

PSU fired coach Nigel Burton after last season and promoted Barnum – then offensive coordinator – to interim coach.

The 2015 schedule included money games at Football Bowl Subdivision schools Washington State and North Texas just to balance the books.

The situation looked impossible.

Barnum said he had concerned friends telling him "if you win four games you will be doing a helluva job. If you win five, you'll be Big Sky Conference coach of the year. But I'm too stupid to worry about that."

The Vikings opened the season by upsetting WSU, which went 8-4 this season and beat six Pac-12 opponents. They laid a 66-7 pasting on North Texas.

So much for the FBS.

Barnum said he liked his players from the start, even before they started stringing together victories.

"When they got down, they didn't panic, they didn't start throwing helmets," he said. "Even after the losses we didn't have a locker room full of people saying, 'it's your fault.' There weren't fingers pointed.

"It was how do we fix this to get where we're going?'"

Which is ... where?

Barnum had the head-coaching job for real by midseason, along with a five-year contract. He was named Big Sky coach of the year at the end of the regular season.

Every victory puts the Vikings further into uncharted territory.

They are fifth-ranked and sixth-seeded. Their nine wins are their most ever as a Division I team. On Saturday, they host their first Division I playoff game.

Barnum has worked hard to keep his players in their regular-season routine. But the stakes are larger now and the spotlight is brighter.

Don't think the players don't know it.

"This is very special for us," Jones said. "But we can't fall short of our ultimate national goal, to win a national championship."
 
A few scarce voices talking about the UNI game. Funny. Reading AGS and other national forums, it's as if PSU doesn't exist even though it's playoffs. I suppose I'm not surprised. The forums are very heavily biased to the East Coast. They know about Montana and no one else. And of course, we've been to the playoffs only once before in our history. How could we mean anything to them? They have to assume we're a flash in the pan. God knows how they'll react when/if we beat UNI.
 
pdxfan said:
A few scarce voices talking about the UNI game. Funny. Reading AGS and other national forums, it's as if PSU doesn't exist even though it's playoffs. I suppose I'm not surprised. The forums are very heavily biased to the East Coast. They know about Montana and no one else. And of course, we've been to the playoffs only once before in our history. How could we mean anything to them? They have to assume we're a flash in the pan. God knows how they'll react when/if we beat UNI.
Click to expand...

We have to have numbers talking about ourselves first before anyone else will pick up the conversation.

You thought college discussions always centered on quality of play?
 
I wonder if we can do more than the minimal lines on the field for tomorrow since the Timbers' home season is over. Some of those traditional slash marks like Notre Dame does in the end zone would be cool and probably pretty easy.
 
PSU playoff game sets up as a physical battle

http://www.csnnw.com/ncaa/psu-playoff-game-sets-physical-battle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
FCS football playoffs: Barnum turns Portland State into a show-stopper

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/college/uni/football/fcs-football-playoffs-barnum-turns-portland-state-into-a-show/article_c4ce8c44-b8d1-5a7f-ae14-2d69ad6150db.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

| Bruce Barnum didn't use a magic potion or any sleight of hand. He simply turned Portland State football into the greatest show in Big Sky country this season.

Promoted from offensive coordinator to interim head coach in November of last year, Barnum took over a program that had just one season above .500 since 2007 and had not been in the FCS playoffs since 2000.

A year ago, the Vikings stumbled to a 3-9 record, which cost Nigel Burton his head coaching position. Barnum, a long-time college assistant with previous stops at Cornell and Idaho State, stepped in as interim head coach.

Portland State knocked off Mike Leach and his highly-regarded Washington State team in Week One and by the second month of the Vikings' season, Barnum had a five-year deal as the permanent head coach.

The success didn't stop for PSU (9-2) and Saturday, the fifth-ranked Vikings will host No. 15 Northern Iowa (8-4) in a second-round FCS playoff game at Providence Park in Portland, Ore. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m. (Central) for the first FCS home playoff game in Portland State history.

"A lot of things went into the puzzle," Barnum said of the turnaround. "It started right away with little things. How we punished them and how they reacted. No jewelry. I took it off them. It was (probably) too old school for some programs.

"The first meeting after they came back from Christmas break, I told them three things. Call home once a week and talk to people you love. Go to school and be excellent about it, and then we will play football."

To put Portland State's season into perspective, consider the fact it had lost 20-plus consecutive
games to nationally-ranked opponents. This season, the Vikings are 5-0 against Top 25 FCS opponents and also own a second FBS victory, a 66-7 thrashing of North Texas.

Portland State beat Big Sky powerhouse programs Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington and Southern Utah.

"Beating the Pirate (Washington State head coach Mike Leach is a pirate aficionado) in Pullman ... everybody believed," Barnum said. "That not only united the football team, but the campus. The Portland/Vancouver area ... people across the nation were talking about us. We kind of saddled it and bottled it ..."

Even after losses to North Dakota and Northern Colorado, the Vikings were sold on Barnum's message. Barnum said after those defeats there wasn't any finger-pointing or name-calling, just a mantra of responding and going back to work.

"I would say it is the same team," running back David Jones said. "(Coach) Barnum has told us it is not all about you and we have to play as a unit. It's not a one-man show, in any case."

UNI head coach Mark Farley says if the wins over Washington State and North Texas didn't open your eyes, the Vikings' Big Sky wins were just as impressive.

"... when they hit Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington," Farley said. "I think (they) are the teams you could recognize by name and they took them down good. Just didn't take them down, they beat them. It wasn't by luck. It wasn't by gimmick. They beat them flat out on the football field."
 
Extra fans today for PSU!! It will be nice to see another cocky MSVC conference team get bounced by the Big Sky. If the Vikings play how they've played all year, I have no doubt you will be moving on! GO VIKS!!
 
A lot new for Portland State

BACK AFTER BYE, VIKINGS HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE AGAINST SURGING NORTHERN IOWA

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/284096-160704-a-lot-new-for-portland-state-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The hay is in the barn for Barney Ball, v. FCS playoffs.

Portland State wrapped up practice on Thursday, for all intents and purposes, for its biggest football game since 2000, the last and only other time the Vikings have been in Division I postseason play.

PSU will take on Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. Saturday at Providence Park in the second round (Sweet 16).

“It’s an entirely new season,” Portland State coach Bruce “Barney” Barnum says.

And it feels like it, in more ways than one. The Vikings are coming off their first week off since Sept. 19, when they were 2-0. They returned the following week to play NCAA Division II Western Oregon, which made for an easy 31-0 victim.

Saturday’s foe will be much, much, much different. Northern Iowa is looking to go 3-0 against Big Sky schools in 2015, and the Panthers have the horses to do so. Even though UNI is ranked 15th in the nation and PSU is No. 5 and has the homefield advantage, many are picking the road team, including Craig Haley, senior editor for STATS FCS, who calls it 23-21 for Northern Iowa.

“We’ve been told each week we don’t have a chance, pretty much,” Barnum says.

Among the questions is how the sixth-seeded Vikings will handle the logistics: They’re the team that sat around for Thanksgiving — they got some time to heal any wounds, but will they be rusty or sluggish against a UNI unit looking like a juggernaut, with six straight wins, including last week’s first-round dismantling of Eastern Illinois, 53-17.

“I like how we handled the break,” Barnum says. “The kids came back ready to go, and we got just about everybody back to health. They enjoyed the holidays with their family, and now they’re excited for the opportunity. You could feel it in practice and see it in the meetings.”

Another perhaps nearly meaningless intangible: How will Northern Iowa handle the potential elements (i.e., rain)? The Panthers play their home games in a dome.

“Once the game starts, I don’t think that’ll matter,” Barnum says.

UNI has won its last two road games, in Brookings, S.D., and Springfield, Mo.

And, what about the uncharted recent territory for PSU of having a lot of positive publicity, plus fan and media interest in this game? By now, the Vikings already have stored their gear till spring.

“I wanted them to go home and enjoy it,” Barnum says, of his team’s huge turnaround, from 3-9 to 9-2, and all the accolades and high fives that came with it. “So they went home or to friends and had a chance to enjoy and listen to the distractions and read about it and have a holiday. Then we brought ‘em back and locked ‘em down.”

Friday was a “fun day” with an unofficial “Scout Bowl” and only half a normal practice, with a morning walkthrough.

On Saturday, “it’s get ‘em up for breakfast, a pregame meal at 3 (p.m.), and then get ready to go,” Barnum says. “It’s all mental and about keeping them off their feet. I think it’s going to be a hard-hitting, fun-to-watch game.”
 
Sac State fan here cheering PsU on tonight . The last school in the playoff in the Big Sky alive. Cheering on a fellow urban, commuter school. Go Vikes!!
 
Not really sure what to take away from this game. Our OL got manhandled, no question about that. Not sure if our Defensive schemes were at fault for all the big plays off tackle and on the edges, or again if we just came up short against a much stronger, faster, and more disciplined team. NIU is very, very sound. It was certainly an inopportune time to amass that amount of turnovers (a season's worth, really).

Well, for the players & coaches that are returning, this should be a wake up call. Barneyball is on the ropes; just when we start getting some traction with fan interest we kinda crap our pants. It's too bad too, because if we had made a decent showing (even if not winning) it well could have left an impression on the folks that were curious enough to come out tonight and remember the Vikings come next September.

Hopefully people will appreciate the effort and see this year as the beginning of something good down the road, but as it will probably play out, Portland State is going to be starting over to convince the city that we're worth their support.
 
Have to think a rematch with UNI to start the season next season, even in Cedar Falls, would keep the interest alive, instead of the rumored Central Washington game.
 
bigskyconf said:
Have to think a rematch with UNI to start the season next season, even in Cedar Falls, would keep the interest alive, instead of the rumored Central Washington game.
Click to expand...

Yeah ! (if their QB has graduated) :lol:
 
scooter said:
Not really sure what to take away from this game. Our OL got manhandled, no question about that. Not sure if our Defensive schemes were at fault for all the big plays off tackle and on the edges, or again if we just came up short against a much stronger, faster, and more disciplined team. NIU is very, very sound. It was certainly an inopportune time to amass that amount of turnovers (a season's worth, really).

Well, for the players & coaches that are returning, this should be a wake up call. Barneyball is on the ropes; just when we start getting some traction with fan interest we kinda crap our pants. It's too bad too, because if we had made a decent showing (even if not winning) it well could have left an impression on the folks that were curious enough to come out tonight and remember the Vikings come next September.

Hopefully people will appreciate the effort and see this year as the beginning of something good down the road, but as it will probably play out, Portland State is going to be starting over to convince the city that we're worth their support.
Click to expand...

I don't think Barnyball is on the ropes. I believe it is just getting started. Northern Iowa has been in the playoffs for the last 18 years, so that exposure has allowed them to recruit players and attract transfers that may be a cut above the what we have seen in the past.

If Barnum can keep the players buying into the system (and I believe he will), he can use the success of this season to begin to improve in all areas and become a team who regularly appears in the playoffs.

We got a lot of national exposure this year and because we look like a program on the move, we might be able to attract more FBS dropdowns, more JUCO grads and those kids, especially the local ones who might otherwise go to schools like the Montanas or Eastern Washington, to
 
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